The next morning, as she sat outside in the garden and mulled over Gellert's return, Ellie decided that she was embarrassed and would not forgive Gellert as easily as he hoped. Was he really that stupid, just assuming that she'd forgive him if he smiled at her and visited her before he visited anyone else?

Maybe the experiments he'd done, getting expelled, and leaving her behind after she'd confessed that she might like him as more than a friend didn't seem like a big deal to him, but it certainly was a big deal to her. She wasn't going to allow herself to be degraded or to let him lower her morals just because he smiled at her.

To make matters even worse, he was hiding something from her. Last night, when he told her about what he'd been researching, his whole face had lit up and his eyes had been intense with passion, but instead of telling her what it was that he had been researching, he quickly changed the subject. The only reasons Ellie could think of that he wouldn't tell her were either he didn't trust her or he was dabbling into dark magic again. Or both.

Next time she saw that good-for-nothing-friend-ditching-jerk-face she would give him a piece of her mind. Ellie was envisioning just what she would do to him, when, speak of the devil, Gellert plopped down on the garden bench beside her.

But, instead of doing all the things she envisioned, she just crossed her arms and looked away, refusing to look at him with his stupid curly blonde hair and stupid brown eyes. Ellie saw him cock an eyebrow out of the corner of her eye, but she refused to acknowledge him in any manner, choosing to give him the cold shoulder.

"Are you still angry that I didn't write you back?" Gellert asked with a heavy sigh. Anger flared up inside of her and seemed to spread quickly through her whole body, making her fingers tingle and her face hot. How dare he act like she was being impossible when he simply disregarded her confession as if it was nothing important!

"Yes, I'm still angry! But that's not the only reason I'm angry. If it were only that, I would have forgiven you already!" Ellie raged. Gellert just watched her as if he wasn't sure how to handle this. Of course, he probably thought that everything had been patched up last night.

"What else have I done to make you angry?" Gellert asked with an expression that suggested he couldn't imagine himself doing anything to anger her. Ellie turned to face him, jabbing him in the chest with an accusing finger.

"You come back and try to act like you didn't run off for a whole year, leaving me behind with no explanation! I didn't know if I was ever going to see you again!" Ellie said, punctuating some of the words with a jab of her finger. "To make it even worse, you're hiding something from me!"

Gellert's face softened as she attempted to hide her tears, embarrassed that her emotions had reduced her to crying. No matter how hard she tried to control herself, whenever she got angry, she ended up crying.

"I'm so embarrassed, Gellert. You don't trust me, even after I trusted you enough t-to tell you how I felt," her voice unsteady now that it was tear-choked.

"I trust you," Gellert assured her as he patted her hand. "I trust you more than anyone."

"If you trust me so much, then how come you can't tell me? Is that why you didn't write to me?" Ellie demanded, not assured in the slightest.

"I didn't tell you because I thought it would just make you angrier, and I wanted you to forgive me before I told you. As for not writing you, I told you it was because I was busy," Gellert explained. Ellie searched his face, trying to determine if she should press him for the answer or let it go for now. She decided that she wouldn't be able to relax until she knew.

"If you can trust me, then tell me," Ellie said, trying to speak calmly. She rubbed her eyes with the back of her hands, hoping that her eyes weren't already puffy.

"I've been researching the Hallows," Gellert said, the excited gleam from last night back in his expression.

"The Hallows?" Ellie repeated. Gellert looked at her like she was crazy, not knowing what the Hallows were.

"You know, from the Tale of the Three Brothers?" He asked. He was positively radiating with excitement, but Ellie wondered what the Tale of Three Brothers had to do with anything. It was just an old story that parents told their kids to remind them to think things through before making decisions and that power wasn't everything.

"What about it?" Ellie asked, not sure where he was going with this.

"The Invisibility Cloak, the Elder Wand, and the Resurrection Stone! Those are the Hallows. I have been researching and I found out that the three brothers were real and that they were the Peverell Brothers. I found one of their gravestones in Godric's Hollow," Gellert told her.

"But, they can't be real. How could the Resurrection Stone exist? It's not possible. Someone would have found them by now," Ellie argued. Gellert shook his head vigorously.

"But it is possible! Ellie, if you came into possession of one of the treasures would you brag about it? I mean, look at the Elder Wand. The brother blabbed about it and was murdered!" He said.

"Why would that make me angry?" Ellie asked. Proving, or at least thinking, a children's story was real wasn't something that would make Ellie angry. So there had to be more to it, otherwise Gellert wouldn't have been so hesitant to tell her.

"I think I know who has the Elder Wand," Gellert said with a huge grin. That grin of his was so endearing that Ellie nearly forgot her anger, but she caught herself in time to stop her from forgiving him prematurely. If she just forgave him, then he would end up hurting her again later on without thinking twice.

"Who has it?" Ellie asked, mostly to humor him, because she knew he wanted her to ask him that. Her backyard darkened briefly as a cloud drifted across the sky and momentarily blocked out the sun.

"Gregorovitch," Gellert answered. At the name of the famous wand maker, she pulled out her own wand and looked at it. Gregorovitch had made her wand, as well as Gellert's.

"Gregorovitch, the wand maker?" Ellie asked, not really believing it. The Hallows were a silly story, nothing more. It was almost comical that genius Gellert was all caught up with it.

"That's the one! There's been rumors that he has the elder wand, and I've received a letter from a reliable source that they've seen him with it," Gellert said. Ellie traced her finger up the side of the wand and tried to wrap her mind around the Hallows being real. It was a scary thing to think about.

"You're going to kill him?" Ellie said, continuing to focus on her wand. Gellert placed his hand over hers on the wand, effectively stopping it's movement, and she looked up at him.

"I'm not going to kill him, Ellie. Just because the history of the wand is bloody doesn't mean I have to obtain the wand by killing him," he said, looking her in the eyes with such an intense expression that Ellie found it hard to keep the eye contact.

"Then how are you going to get it?" she asked, her hand still under his bigger, warmer one.

"I'm going to steal it."

---

It was an hour or so after his talk with Ellie and Gellert was leaning against a white picket fence still thinking about what had been said. He had told her about the elder wand and his plans for stealing it and she wasn't angry at him for that. But, he still hadn't told her about what he intended to do once he had possession of the elder wand. That, he knew, would make her angry or at least upset.

He pushed away these thoughts when he spotted the reason he was leaning against a white picket fence, a young man with messy brown hair, strolling up the street. When the brunette recognized Gellert, his face broke out in a smile and he hurried his pace.

"Gellert, what're you doing back here?" he asked. Gellert ran a hand through his curly blonde hair and smiled mischievously.

"I'm here to invite you along on an adventure, Demitir," Gellert said. Demitir unlatched the gate and motioned for Gellert to follow him up to his house. Demitir lead him to the pale yellow sitting room before leaving with the promise of 'some tea his Mother had fixed not too long ago'.

So, as he waited for the return of one of his closest friends and devoted follower during the 'experiments' he had conducted, he allowed his eyes and thoughts to wander. The last time he'd been in this room was the last day of summer before he'd been expelled. They had been celebrating Ellie's birthday.

Demitir interrupted his thoughts once again, returning with a tray holding tea and a rather large pile of sweets and biscuits. When he saw Gellert looking at the food he apologized, "Sorry, my Mother caught me in the kitchen and insisted." He then set the tray down and settled into the chair opposite Gellert. "So, what type of adventure are we talking about?"

"The type of adventure that ends with us possessing the Elder Wand," Gellert answered, using the term 'us' quite liberally. Of course the Elder Wand could only have one master, but the purposes that it would be used for would be beneficial for the both of them.

"You've found it?" Demitir asked, his teacup paused midway to his mouth in his astonishment. It had been hard pressed for them to find more information beyond the stories of the Hallows, and it was hard to believe that Gellert had found the wand already. "Where?"

"I have it from a very reliable source the wand maker Gregorovitch has it," Gellert said. Demitir grinned excitedly and Gellert was sure that his face held a similar expression.

"Have you told Ellie about it?" Demitir asked. For a second, Gellert's smile faltered. It would be so much easier if he didn't have to deal with Ellie. Having to worry about what Ellie thought really weighed him down. But, he knew he wouldn't be able to keep her out of his life. They had been best friends since they were old enough to walk.

"Yes, I have," Gellert answered before taking a big bite from a biscuit.

"And how did she react?" Demitir asked, though - judging by his expression - he already had an idea of how she reacted.

"She was angry," Gellert said. "And she cried."

"Oho! Our Ellie, always the dramatic one," Demitir chuckled. Gellert laughed half-heartedly, wanting to bring the conversation back to the Elder Wand. In the absence of Dumbledore, he wanted someone to share his excitement with, and Demitir, like Ellie, was one of his closest friends. Demitir seemed to sense that he wanted to talk about the Elder Wand some more, because he said, "So, what's the plan?"

"We need to get the Elder Wand, but I have to take ownership of it properly," Gellert said, leaning forward in his seat. "Which will be difficult, since it's, after all, an unbeatable wand."